blogsketball

On Saturday night, I rolled into the World’s Most Obviously Named Arena, the Main Gym at the U of A. The Saskatchewan Huskies were in town wrapping up their weekend series against the Bears and Pandas. The girls were closing out the first quarter, so we’ll start there.

The Pandas were upset by the Huskies on Friday night and made sure to hammer the point home on Saturday night who the better team is. Of course, that point is a lot easier to make with Sarah Crooks and Ashley Dutchak, the core of the team for the last five years, off playing ball in Europe. The Pandas used a 23–7 second quarter to blow a close game open and they didn’t look back. They went on to win 70–42 behind 17 points from Michelle Anderson, who looked as good as I’ve seen her in her two years at the U of A.

Kristen Jarock had a big game, going for 16 points on 7–11 shooting. Ashley Wigg only scored six points, but she controlled the game, doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

Some bad news for the Pandas came in the second half when Carly McLennan checked out with a hand injury. You could hear Scott Edwards talking with her as she came out of the game. He looked at her fingers and went, “Ooh, that’s not good.” She wore a steel splint on her pinky and ring finger through the rest of the night. I asked her about it and she said she didn’t think it was broken, but you could see that yellow colour bruising underneath the bandages in the splint. Break or severe sprain, she’ll probably miss some games because of it.

On Friday night in the men’s game, Alex Steele racked up 30 points and dished for 8 assists, which helped make up for the absence of CG Morrison in the Bears 81–88 win over the Huskies.

Saturday night’s game wouldn’t be as glorious for either party. All in all, this one was pretty ugly. Sure, in the layup line AGP put down a two-handed 360 easier than I can think about doing one, and yeah, Andrew Spagrud flossed a little of his 38″ leap, but the theatrics came to a quick halt in the first quarter, when the refs decided they were going to blow the whistles like they were chaperoning a junior high dance at a Catholic school.

After calling five consecutive ticky-tack fouls on both teams, Steele found AGP for a nice two-handed flush. From there, the game was just ugly. Bad shooting and officiating made for a crappy first quarter. 14–11 Saskatchewan after one.

2nd quarter

The Bears’ initial gameplan was to have Justin VanLoo guard Spagrud. When VanLoo picked up his second foul in just six minutes of play, he had to sit down next to Harvey Bradford, who had two fouls of his own in just two minutes of play. So in goes Brayden Janzen, a new face to the Bears, who gets the unenviable task of guarding a guy who has been an MVP candidate from his first day in the league. You can say that it didn’t go too well.

Spags went to work on him pretty quick, posting him up and drop stepping his way to a hook shot for two points. The next time down the floor, Spags has his shot blocked by Richard Bates. He gets his rebound at the free throw line, spins around Janzen and lays it in for two more. A rough start for the new guy.

Saskatchewan head coach Greg Jockims picks up a technical foul for his criticism of the refs midway through the second. Alex Steele makes the two free throws on the tech, plus the two on the disputed call to bring the Bears within one, 22–21.

Janzen looks really, really nervous out there. He turns it over on one play, has rebounds bouncing out of his hands, is losing the ball when it’s passed to him, having trouble dribbling. So yeah Vanessa, I felt your pain this weekend. Janzen played 14 minutes in the opening half of the game.

Spagrud gets to the line again and hits both, then hits a gorgeous looking turnaround. Good quarter for him.

Sask fill-in starting point guard Rob Lovelace is filling in for the recently departed Regan Chabot, who apparently up and walked out on the team recently (philosophical differences?). Lovelace played well on Saturday night, with his best play coming in the final seconds of the half. He gets by the Alberta defence and catches the refs looking the other way when he travels, then lays the ball in. It bounces around and rolls in right before the buzzer sounds.

31–27 Sask at the half.

3rd quarter

Spagrud hits another shot to get things going.

Harvey Bradford is back in, playing with two fouls and is trying his best to make an impact. He’s really improved this year, after sitting a lot during his first two years as a Bear. It had to be tough for him, because he was such a highly touted recruit for the Bears (as a senior in Cranbrook, BC, he almost averaged a triple double—something like 28 points, 13 boards and 8 assists per) and then found himself stuck on the bench. I thought he was ready for minutes last year but didn’t really get the chance. He ended up finishing the night with 12 points, mostly on inside buckets in just 15 foul-heavy minutes.

In the third quarter, the Huskies showed what they’ve got. Kyle “I look like a farm boy but I can ball” Grant started connecting on the longball, and the Huskies built up a lead of 7 that would go as high as 10. The Huskies wouldn’t give it up.

The Bears almost give it up on a weird looking offensive setup. Steele almost has his dribble stolen, he bats at the ball and gets it back, then whips the ball inside to an open Bates. An amazing pass, probably the best one of the night.

Spagrud continues plugging away inside, picking up trips to the line and connecting on short to midrange J’s.

The Bears keep hanging around as the third ends. Sask takes a 53–46 lead into the final frame.

4th quarter aka BOSS LEVEL

The Bears continue to hang around, despite the consistent play of Spagrud, Kyle Grant and Lovelace. I started to get the feeling that if they’re still around in the final minutes, that the Bears have a good shot at pulling this one out from the Huskies.

The Huskies must have felt the same thing, because when Harvey Bradford gets inside and scores to cut their lead to one at 58–57, they turn on the afterburners (what an ’80s way of describing it) and don’t look back. Take Sask’s big three of Spags, Grant and Lovelace and throw in the surprisingly clutch shooting of Tim Hollman, who hit two treys to keep the game out of reach, and you get the dagger on the night: the Dogs outscore the Bears 17–6 in the final 6:20 and win by ten.

So that’s it. The Bears couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole they were in all night and they get a split for their efforts.

But wait a minute, Chris, you’re probably saying to yourself. Maybe you’re even saying it out loud. There’s got to be something you haven’t talked about yet. Well wise reader, you’re right. It’s time for the as-yet-un-sponsored Theatrical Moment of the Night.

I thought it might have happened in the second quarter when Jockims got T’d up for his displeasure with the refs’ work. Not to be outdone, though, Don Horwood absolutely blew up on the ref who falsely called a double dribble on Steele in the game’s final minutes. The ref who called the violation was at an unfair disadvantage, because he was facing opposite of where the media table and Bears bench was sitting. From our side, there was no question what happened: Steele was dribbling, someone from Sask poked the ball away from him, Steele grabbed the ball with both hands and continued dribbling. No problem, it’s all good because the opposing player touched the ball. Everyone in the gym pretty much saw that—except the ref, who from his viewpoint got a double dribble.

He makes the call, the entire gym blows up on him and the ref turns blood red. He knows he’s blown the call. In an effort to save face, I’m assuming, he looked around and saw someone who he could put in his place: Horwood. He Tech’s him up and the place goes up even more, especially Horwood. Now, keep in mind that Horwood’s been doing this for 25 years at the U of A. He’s been on both sides of every scenario imaginable in basketball. Some of them twice. So he responds in a very calm manner to the technical foul, telling the official that his mistake was a big one, maybe even the biggest one he’s ever made. I think we can all imagine how that played out.

Lines of the night:

AB: Steele: 17 points, 3 assists, 6 turnovers.
Parker: 17 points, 7 rebounds

Sask: Spagrud: 21 points, 8 rebounds
Grant, 18 points, 6 rebounds.